AND from the same article Craig his comment on membranes........
And membranes were key to the physiology of cells because they
protect their contents, concentrate chemicals to promote reactions and isolate successful genes from unsuccessful ones. "It's clear you really need both these elements to get evolution off the ground and running," says Szostak..
As I suggested earlier a simple water drop already has in effect a membrane, and given the alignment of the molecules at the surface maybe this provides a foundation for other molecules to also line up and "evolve" toward a membrane or shell.. a droplet also concentrates chemicals as we know.
It is only my mere opinion but I doubt that isolation of sucessful and unsuccessful genes would be necessary or that would be part of the early membranes job.. it would be probable that certain chemicals were just more stable than others and that was what defined their sucess.
So all we need for a simple cell is a droplet of water maintained at a correct temp and with the correct chemicals to be concentrated in the center... all I am suggesting is the structure of a droplet of water may provide the mechanism for evolvement to a more complex object.
alex
